Religious coping and psychological well-being in Latino Alzheimer's caregivers

Prior research has demonstrated the benefits of religion on caregiver well-being; however, less research exists on the processes underlying this relationship, particularly in Latino Alzheimer's disease (AD) families. This study's aim was therefore to explore the direct and indirect influences of positive religious coping (RC-P) and negative religious coping (RC-N) on caregivers' experiences of depression and anxiety.

The data are from the Circulo de Cuidado Study baseline interviews; participant eligibility criteria were that the person identifies as being Latino, providing at least 5 h of care weekly, and their relative has an AD diagnosis and neuropsychiatric symptoms. In person at-home interviews were conducted in Spanish with 67 caregivers. Religious coping was assessed with the Brief RCOPE; depression and anxiety were measured with the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale-Spanish version and State Anxiety Inventory. Multivariate regression analyses, controlling for caregiving stressors, were used to test our core hypotheses.

As hypothesized, RC-N had significant direct effect on depression (p < 0.001) and anxiety (p < 0.001) as well as partially mediated the relationship between caregiver subjective stressor and depression (p < 0.01) and anxiety (p < 0.01). However, contrary to our hypothesis, RC-P did not have a direct or indirect effects on psychological well-being.

Our findings are consistent with other studies linking RC-N to poorer caregiver outcomes. Caregivers who questioned God's power, perceived God punishing them, or felt abandoned by God reported greater levels of depression and anxiety. The results suggest that caregivers experiencing religious distress may feel overwhelmed and view a more hopeless future.